Richest 0.1% of world have greater carbon footprint than poorest 44%

The richest 0.1 per cent of the world’s population produces more greenhouse gas emissions than the poorest 44 per cent combined, research for Oxfam shows. It means each of those 8 million billionaires and millionaires is responsible for carbon pollution equivalent to more than 437 low-income people. Oxfam’s Disaster Divide report analyses the outsize emissions and impacts of the super-rich on the wider world. It finds that while the rich are responsible for a disproportionate share of carbon pollution, it is ordinary people who bear the brunt of the resulting floods, fires and famine.

The rich escape the consequences personally because they can afford to protect themselves and their properties and have the luxury of mobility. It also finds the rich often benefit from climate disasters because prices of the commodities they control rise in a crisis. Jim Clarken, chief executive of Oxfam Ireland, said the statistics “should shake world leaders into action”. “The brutal unfairness of this reality should be a rallying call to protest, to urgently demand legislative change and to fight for this planet and its people,” he said.

He said the fight was not just global but already on Ireland ’s doorstep. “Climate inequality is a mirror for larger societal gaps that Irish people also feel on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “We’re seeing this with energy poverty and a powerful few using data centres in this country above the needs of its people.” The report also calculates the emissions impact of the richest 1 per cent of the world’s population, linking them to 1.9 million excess heat-related deaths.

It also highlights the displacement of people due to climate disasters and says around 1 billion people will have been forced to move from their homes and lands by 2050, the majority from the global south. It says the emissions of the richest 1 per cent will cause nearly $53 trillion (€47 trillion) in damage from extreme weather events driven by human-caused climate change by 2050. The report is released in the run-up to the Cop31 UN climate summit which takes place in Turkey next month.

Oxfam Ireland is calling on Irish ministers attending the summit to also take action at home by introducing a moratorium on data centre expansion until the sector can demonstrate its growth is compatible with national emissions-reduction targets. The aid and development charity is also calling for a wealth tax, which it terms a “polluter pays” tax, and a windfall tax on energy companies, with the revenues to be spent on communities most affected by climate change.

It is also pushing for Ireland to increase its contribution to climate finance for poorer countries to at least €500 million annually – more than twice the current level.